“Start packing your things. I want you out of my office by the end of the day,” The obese man in front of me said, as he took a swig from his whiskey glass.

He had called me into his office first thing in the morning and had dropped this on me all of a sudden.

“Sir? What is this about? You had just given me excellent reviews on my work last week.”

The man adjusted his glasses while he whirled his glass around, “The past isn’t something you can fix. If our company had known of your history, we would not have hired you.”

“...What do—”

“Enough, your gang relationship has come to light. While I have found no problem with your work so far, if it got out that we had someone like you in our company, it would ruin our reputation. The decision is final.”

“That is in the past, I don’t—”

“Enough. If you could please stop wasting my time, I am busy here.”

And that was how I ended up losing my first job within the first three months.

It had been devastating.

It felt like all the work I had put in to better myself was all for nothing because of where I came from. It only pained me more since I just thought I had escaped from my past, only for it to catch up.

My dream of getting rich and having an easy life seemed impossible now. No other company in the industry would hire me with my meager amount of experience. They would only hire their former interns for the beginner roles, and they wouldn’t touch someone a top company had let go after only a short while.

I had to do some horrible things back when I was growing up to survive and I had thought I could change, but reality wasn’t such a forgiving place.

After my termination, I refused to give up and took several part-time jobs in retail, aiming to save up enough to start my own business. The small amounts I could scrounge up into my savings each month were depressing. With rising food prices, rent, and inflation, it seemed like some force was out to get me.

It took three years of diligent saving, but I was finally ready.

“It was nice talking to you today, Mr. Halls. I will have the documents emailed to you soon. Once you have signed them, we should be able to incorporate your business. Hope you have a great rest of the day. See you soon.”

As I exited my attorney’s office with a hop in my step, I put on my earphones and started humming happily to a tune as I made my way to the bus stop. From now on, I no longer had to juggle between my part-time jobs and could wholeheartedly focus on my business.

I watched the light change before crossing the street. Just as I had made it halfway, car horns rang out from all the surrounding cars. I turned, only to see bright headlights rapidly growing in size.

I had just enough time to make out the terror on the truck driver’s face before everything turned dark.